Harry Price, psychical researcher and author, who used his knowledge of stage magic to expose phoney mediums, poltergeists and other scams, seen in his laboratory. (Harry Price Library of Magical Literature, University of London)
With History Day 2017 scheduled on the 31st of October, we decided to use this blog to celebrate all that is scary, eerie and magical in libraries and archives. The members of the Committee of London Research Libraries in History and the participants of History Day will be writing about collections and items that fit that description. For example, Senate House Library’s Harry Price Library of Magical Literature includes items about magic, while the IHR Library’s printed primary sources include materials about witchcraft. Look for posts by the London Metropolitan Archives, SOAS, and other libraries and archives in the next few months. We hope this blog series helps build your enthusiasm for the fifth History Day and gives you a (magical?) peek into the amazing collections we celebrate on this blog and at History Day.
You can find out more about the upcoming History Day on this website, as well as read about last year’s blog series on ‘Hope and Fear‘. Registration for History day will open in late August 2017 but you can find news and updates here and with the hashtag #HistDay17. Don’t be afraid!